The return of the son-in-law

When Wei Zichen returned to the mansion, there was already someone waiting there, and it was the servant who was on duty at night in the mansion.

One of them took two steps forward and said with a smile: "Your Excellency is back, the house has been tidied up, please move forward, and follow us to see if the house suits you."

Originally, Wei Zichen and his party should live in the post station, but firstly, there are already some people living in the post station, and there are not so many rooms for them to live in; It takes a lot of time to discuss matters when necessary at night, and it takes a lot of time to go back and forth between the post station and the government office.

There are quite a few rooms in the backyard of the government office, which were originally for Zhizhou and his family to live in, and there are a few other rooms, which are guest rooms.Shi Guogan has a wife, two concubines, and two or three concubines.Originally, this family occupied the huge backyard of the government office, but Guo Zhan'an made an excuse. Except for Shi Guogan and his wife's house, they all lived in a small courtyard and quarreled endlessly all day long.

The vacated courtyard was thoroughly cleaned, and a lot of beautiful jade and jewelry were found along the way, which at first glance was not something Shi Guogan could afford with his monthly salary.

Shi Guogan is now a tiger whose teeth have been pulled out. He dares not speak out, and can only watch Guo Zhanan order people to record these treasures. If you want to raid my house, if your Majesty and the officials find out, you will be punished!"

Guo Zhan'an ignored him, turned around and asked someone to buy some fresh fruit plates and put them in the house to get rid of the pungent powder smell in the house.

These houses are naturally for He Zudao and others to live in.

Wei Zichen opened his hands and let the servant take off his coat.Wei Zichen has a high position and a high standard of living. He brought this young man from the capital, so when the staff at the side spoke, they did not shy away from this young man: "My lord, you have talked with Guo Zhan'an for a long time, what do you know?"

Wei Zichen recalled the conversation between the two, laughed, and said, "He is a malleable talent."

"Oh?" The staff was a little surprised, "To get such an evaluation from the adults, it seems that Guo Zhan'an is a dragon and a phoenix among the people, with a bright future."

Wei Zichen waved his hand, motioning the boy to go down first, and said, "This man is thoughtful, and he didn't feel any embarrassment when talking to me. But after all, he's young, he can't hide his thoughts, and he exposed it without saying a few words."

The staff hurriedly asked: "How do you say this?"

Wei Zichen thought for a while and said: "When he talked with me, although he tried his best to show a fair appearance, he pointed the finger at Shi Guogan inside and outside the words, and even hinted that there was a problem with Xuzhou's military salary."

The staff thought for a while, and said: "I remember that Guo Zhan'an once served as the companion of the third prince, and Jiang Hou's natal family is the ancestral home of Guo Zhan'an's biological mother. The closest ones are probably only the Jiang family."

Guo Xiantong's dislike for the eldest son and his preference for the second son are almost well-known among the bureaucrats in the capital, and Wei Zichen and his staff are of course no exception.

Wei Zichen only felt a little pity, and sighed: "However, no matter what his purpose is, it's about military pay, and I have to follow the route he set. It's really scary."

The staff did not agree with Wei Zichen's point of view, and further analyzed: "My lord, I remember that before the third prince returned to Beijing, he had experienced in the Xuzhou military camp, and now his other companion, Jiang Yannian, is still in the military camp. I'm afraid there are other plans."

Wei Zichen shook his head helplessly, and said, "Even if I have other plans, do I have any other options? Before leaving, Your Majesty asked me to stabilize the situation. The east wind and the west wind must be evenly matched. Let either faction gain the upper hand. Guo Zhanan's move is forcing me to make a choice."

Compared with Wei Zichen, the aides did not have such a heavy burden, and said: "Since this is the case, why don't you leave it to others to do it, so as not to fulfill Guo Zhan'an's wish."

Wei Zichen waved his hand and said, "No, it's about the foundation of the country. Now that I know about it, there is no reason for me to sit idly by. Besides, His Majesty trusts me, how can I live up to His Majesty's trust?"

The aides quickly understood the deep meaning of Wei Zichen's words: the reason why the emperor trusted Wei Zichen, apart from Wei Zichen's ability to do things as he liked, was the most important reason.If this matter is done well, then Wei Zichen's status in the emperor's heart will rise a lot.

The seemingly peaceful conversation with Guo Zhan'an actually took Wei Zichen a lot of energy.He asked his staff to go down to rest first, while the servant brought hot water to wait for Wei Zichen to rest.

Wei Zichen slept on the bed, but couldn't fall asleep for a long time.

Earlier at the dinner table, he deliberately made an appearance of seeking pleasure, in order to trick Guo Zhan'an into being fooled.If Guo Zhan'an wants to get rid of Shi Guokang, he must please them.He knew about the other colleagues. Except for Huang Mingli, no one else would give Guo Zhanan this chance.He originally thought that if a young man wanted to please himself, he must do what he liked, and if he gave such an obvious bait, this young man would definitely be fooled.But he didn't expect that Guo Zhan'an didn't like this trick at all. Instead, he arranged carefully and led himself into the trap.

Really terrifying.

Thinking of this, Wei Zichen felt more and more regretful, if Guo Zhan'an was not the third prince's companion, he would accept Guo Zhan'an as his disciple after this matter was over.After his careful teaching and paving the way, Guo Zhanan's official career will only be smoother.

He is now past the age of knowing the destiny, but the two sons in the family can't bear the glory of the Wei family at all.The Wei family started to make a fortune from him, no more than those century-old families, neither great achievements nor profound family knowledge.After a hundred years, what should the Wei family do?

That's all, there are so many people in the world, besides Guo Zhan'an, there must be Li Zhan'an and Xu Zhan'an, why should I put my chips on a young man?

Thinking of this, Wei Zichen only felt that the worries that had troubled him for many years were relieved a lot, and then he fell into a deep sleep.

The issue of military pay is of great importance. After all, Wei Zichen is new here, and He Zudao is in charge this time.So, the next day, Wei Zichen discussed the matter with He Zudao alone.

He Zudao knew the purpose of Wei Zichen's trip, so when he heard Wei Zichen's visit to the Guo Mansion last night, he was only a little surprised at the beginning, and then he focused on the issue of military pay.

"It's easy to check the military pay. The military pay distributed by the Ministry of War is recorded. After the military camp receives the military pay, it will be counted by the clerk and recorded. Therefore, we only need to send people to the Ministry of War and The Xuzhou military camp has collected the dossiers related to military pay in the past few years, and they can compare them one by one."

This is also Wei Zichen's idea, but it's just that he's doing this, so far, it's not justified.He heard He Zudao also said the same, so he took advantage of the situation and said: "In this case, I will trouble Mr. He to write the notes."

He Zudao nodded, and said: "It's just about ten days to go to the capital and back. During this time, I ask Mr. Wei to collect other clues first."

Wei Zichen was happy to take on such a beautiful job, nodded and said: "Wei has a duty."

Huang Mingli has been paying attention to the movement here, he saw that He Zudao came out, with a faint anger on his face, he was a little worried.But it was not easy for him to ask directly, so he could only lower his head and sort out the files, in fact, he was trying to find another way.

By noon, everyone was exhausted after a busy morning.After a simple meal, the other two went back to the room to rest, while Huang Mingli sat aside, staring at the teacup in his hand, and finally made up his mind.

He walked up to He Zudao and said, "Master He, I looked through the file this morning and found that there are some discrepancies between Xuzhou's taxes and the records of the household department in the past two years."

He Zudao heard this, and his drowsiness dissipated a lot. Taxation is another important pillar of the imperial court. Once something goes wrong, many people will inevitably be involved.He hurriedly asked: "Where is it, let me have a look?"

Huang Mingli then took out all the dossiers he had prepared, put them in front of He Zudao, and said: "The matter of taxation should be the responsibility of a state's general judge, but Shi Guogan, as the governor of the state, did not notice it, and it is considered an added crime." Wait. I think this Shi Guogan was originally a young talent, but now he has become like this, which is really embarrassing. I only found a lot here, and I am afraid that other adults will also gain something."

He Zudao put all his attention on taxation, Huang Mingli didn't think too much about what he said, but said: "Oh, taxation, military salary, this Shiguo is very courageous."

When the word "military salary" fell into Huang Mingli's ears, it was like a bolt from the blue.His whole body tensed up, his mind was spinning rapidly, but there was a look of indignation on his face: "This man is so bold, he was recommended by Liu Xiang, but he did such a thing, really You failed Liu Xiang's good intentions!"

He Zudao glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, but didn't think much about it.

Although Huang Mingli's reaction was too exaggerated, because Huang Mingli didn't catch Li Shaojin and Liu Yuanheng's eyes before, and didn't walk around with them much, so he didn't know Huang Mingli was Li Shaojin and Liu Yuanheng's.He only thought that Huang Mingli's imperial examination was presided over by Liu Yuanheng that year, and Liu Yuanheng was kind to him and worthy of Huang Mingli's "teacher", so now he deliberately throws out Liu Yuanheng's name, in fact, he wants to help Liu Yuanheng Clear the relationship.

These are very common in the officialdom. Every candidate who participates in the imperial examination will regard the chief examiner of this imperial examination as his mentor.Huang Mingli's actions are not surprising, even if it is spread, some scholars will praise him.

As for Li Shaojun, it was thanks to him sending people to watch Li Shaojin and Liu Yuanheng all the time before that he found out some clues and tracked down all the way, only to find out that Huang Mingli turned out to be Li Shaojin's person.

After another seven or eight days, although Huang Mingli wanted to clean up for Li Shaojin, he didn't find the opportunity for a long time.On the contrary, in these days, all kinds of activities that Shi Guogan has done in the past five years have been found out.Some of them were instructed by Li Shaojin, while others were made by Shi Guokang himself.For example, Huang Mingli sent a letter to ask Li Shaojin about the tax issue, but the latter didn't even know about it!

Shi Guogan couldn't keep it!

Huang Mingli and Shi Guogan didn't know each other, so he made a quick judgment without any emotion.

Anyway, before he set off, Li Shaojin also made it clear to him that if there was an emergency, as long as the military pay and private soldiers were not exposed, everything else could be sacrificed.

After waiting for two more days, the courier at the post station sent the dossier copied by the Ministry of War.On the other hand, Wei Zichen personally went to the military camp and brought the clerk and the records of the past few years back to the government office.But he didn't want to, there was another person brought back - Jiang Yannian.

I saw Jiang Yannian clasping his hands at everyone and saying: "Hi, my lords, I heard that this matter is related to military pay. Although I, Jiang Yannian, am not talented, I have read the books of sages for a few years at least. As the saying goes, it is a matter of being loyal to the emperor. I raise war horses in the northwest, if there is a problem with the military salary, the war horses will also be unlucky. My lords, do you mind if I listen together?"

As the saying goes, don't hit a smiling person with your hand, not to mention that Jiang Yannian will be the next head of the Jiang family if there is no accident.

Although the Jiang family was not favored by the current emperor Li Chonghao, even if a Jiang queen was born, they were often suppressed.But no matter what, the Jiang family is a century-old family and enjoys a reputation in Qingliu. He Zudao and others are also willing to give the Jiang family a face, so they acquiesced to Jiang Yannian's behavior.

He Zudao tore off the sealing paint and took out the paper, while Wei Zichen opened the records brought back from the military camp, and the two compared the records of the two parties one by one.

Huang Mingli almost didn't dare to take a breath, his eyes stared straight at the two pieces of paper, wishing to see through the paper.

To his great surprise, the file of the Ministry of War and the record of the barracks happened to match.

He immediately thought that this clerk belonged to Li Shaojin, and he must have taken the opportunity to revise the record of the barracks.

However, what he thought of, Jiang Yannian also thought of.

"My lords, do you mind if I take a look?"

He Zudao and Wei Zichen looked at each other, then handed over to Jiang Yannian.

When Jiang Yannian took it, he didn't look at the specific figures, but instead looked at the time of each payment.Afterwards, he looked up at the crowd and said: "My lord, please look at the time of the military pay for these two quarters. At that time, there was another secretary in the military camp. He happened to be still in Xuzhou. Why don't you ask him to come over and ask, Your Majesty." It’s good to have an explanation.”

He Zudao naturally agreed.Although the dossiers and records are correct, it would be safer to ask the parties concerned. When the time comes to write such a note on the paperwork, it can be regarded as proof that they are serious and responsible.

Of course, Huang Mingli would not let Jiang Yannian get his way easily. He knew that the record had been changed by someone. If the original clerk still remembered it, wouldn't it match the file of the Ministry of War?

"In my opinion, the numbers are all right, and it would be too cautious to call someone over. Right now we still have a lot of files to look at, and many suspicious points to investigate, so we don't need to spend time and energy on such superfluous things."

Wei Zichen was the first to refuse: "Your Majesty asked us to come to Xuzhou to thoroughly investigate Shi Guogan. The matter of military pay is related to the country, and we must not be sloppy. In my opinion, let the clerk come over and ask."

Some people were also a little worried: "It's been five years, can you still remember it clearly?"

Jiang Yannian just smiled and said nothing.He knew that Xu Laowu certainly remembered clearly, because of these few military salaries, Xu Laowu's only son died tragically, and his wife died because of this incident five years later, how could he not remember clearly?

But Huang Mingli and others didn't know.

When Huang Mingli thought about it, he also felt that what this person said was reasonable, it was all five or six years ago, how could he still remember it so clearly.He simply agreed with Jiang Yannian's opinion, so as not to let everyone think that he was trying to shield Shi Guokang.

Xu Lao Wu is still in Xuzhou, and he was his wife's first seven a few days ago. He handles many matters by himself and completely rejects other people's kindness.Now, according to the yamen servant, an adult in the capital asked him to ask about the military salary, and he followed without saying a word in sackcloth.

Xu Lao Wu's family has been ruined, and now, those who harmed him must die like his poor son, without a place to bury him!